Faithful Followers

Saturday, March 22, 2008

"Huh? Whaaa? Who's where?" I tried to shake the fog from my sleepy brain. Brooklyn's locked up somewhere? It hit me and I fully awoke with a jolt, sitting upright in bed. I ran out to the kitchen to see Jackson standing by the kitchen sink, pointing to the cabinets underneath. I heard a slightly muffled, "I stuck here, Mommy!" coming from the cabinets.

After searching for a minute (I think it was only a minute, but at the time it seemed like 10!) for the magnet to unlock the latches, I freed poor Brooklyn from the kitchen cabinets.

That's how my day started. I wouldn't expect anything less. I mentally blocked the details of the rest of the day from my brain. There are benefits to being delusional. If I remembered every little thing that happened on a daily basis, I’d surely end up like this…

I do know that they found plenty of constructive things to do while I was working though. For example, Brooklyn did a little art work…

Clayton played the maracas with a couple coffee cups until one of them broke.

Later in the day, Jackson stepped on the piece of the mug that chipped off and cut his foot, leaving a trail of blood across the floor.

Lexi tried pulling a tooth out. Too bad the tooth wasn’t ready to come out. Instead, Lexi freaked out to the ninth degree and bled all over the place.

We got a stupid snow storm yesterday too. Thursday the kids were outside playing baseball in t-shirts because it was 50 degrees here. Yesterday this…

So I kicked the kids out of the house and locked the door behind them the kids went out and played in the snow until Joe came home and saw that Austin had his good drop cloths out in the snow for some reason. Knowing Austin, he was making a kind of sled, or fort, or perhaps an engine made of canvas that runs on snow.

At one point, during the day, I went to the pantry to get cocoa powder so I could make Clay the hot chocolate he’d been whining about for the last 5 ½ hours. I opened the pantry door and screamed because for some reason Lexi was hiding in there while munching on a half empty container of potato chips.

The whole world came crashing down a little later. I, because I’m stupid and don’t learn, blew up a globe beach ball for the little kids and handed it to them with the instructions, “Only ROLL this ball. ROLL it across the floor to each other. If I see you throw it, I will take it away.”

“But can we throw it up in the air and catch it again?”

“No! Only ROLLING."

“But can we gently toss it up like this?”

“NO! You can only ROLL it!”

“How about if we do this?” He started bouncing it off his knee.

“YOU CAN ONLY ROLL IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed like a psychopath.

Naturally, I saw it go flying through the air mere seconds later.

It was promptly confiscated which brought screaming and crying that could be heard all the way to Constantinople, er, uh, Istanbul.

They polished off an entire container of peanut butter cups.

Lexi’s glasses were broken.

Yep, that was my fun for yesterday.

Today, I discovered this on Clay...

It's an Easter basket with a couple eggs.

It says, "Clayton or Spaz"

Blogger is still acting stupid and it won't let me insert pictures or links. I can't spell check or preview my post either. But, in my frustration, I did a little research last night and found Windows Live Writer. You can go there and download this (along with some other programs if you like) for free. For those of you who use Blogger, you know how pictures you insert always show up at the top of your post and you have to move them around? It's a pain in the butt! With this program, your pictures show up wherever you insert them. And you can change your fonts and such too! Fun! I'm loving this way of writing in my blog. Check it out.

And if you like reading funny quotes, check out this blog which is chock full of funnyisms from the blogosphere.

Gotta love Spring Break and the weather in Chicago. As the mom of 2 kids who have not gotten a long since they walked in the door on Thursday afternoon, and the Military Wife of a man who is in Kuwait, it has been a long 2 days so far. But I have to thank you for your blog, it is the one moment each day I can laugh and jump into someone elses life for just a moment. My husband has been gone since July and he will not return till June, and I have to tell you I totally have a new found respect for Single Parents. Anyways, thanks, from kntsmom in Elk Grove, IL.

Oh yes, I love those mornings when nothing seems to go right, and if one more child says the dreaded "But Mommmmm" then I'm gonna go lock myself in the bathroom days. Thankfully we still have a full week before spring break here!

That beach ball scene is, word for word, something that would happen in my house. My 5yo will debate something like that until I want to pull my hair out. Hopefully tomorrow will be less interesting for you!

Dawn, I must say I am sitting here reading this cracking up! I am the youngest of 7 children (I'm almost 42 and my oldest sibling is 61) and I saw my 3 middle brothers do so much of what your kids do! They were teenagers in the 60's...need I say more?

I remember firecracker wars in the house...who could flush the smallest kid down the toilet (that would be me), etc. Oh man...I've got a million of them.

Keep up the great writing!! It brings back memories for me.

Oh yea...My parents crack up about this stuff now too, that we're all parents...they say so that WE can go through what we did to them. LMBO!! So see, there is hope!

Yay for the new websites! That ball is really cool. I hate days like that, its never good to be woken out of a good sleep. I hope the rest of your spring break goes well and that you get some nice spring weather!

What a "lovely" day!I just KNEW where that ball was going to end up! I have stupidly blown one up before and said the same things to my kids.I really think Bill Cosby said it best," Kids are brain dead."LOL

I'm exhausted reading about your day, and it's not even officially spring break yet, is it?

Happy Easter, and I must add a question mark?

If you even HAVE time to read, stop on by Manic Mom's later next week for a chance to win some fun books by Jennifer Weiner, including her new one:http://www.manicmommy.blogspot.com (If I may whore myself out for a moment?)

Hi Dawn: The ONE thing you guys seem to be missing is MUSIC. So..keep an eye out for the UPS guy...I ordered up a nice set of DRUMS for your oldest..and the rest of them get nice shiny CYMBALS (with a cute triangle for baby!) Oh..No thanks necessary..just think of the sweet concerts your kiddos will make to seranade your nap time?Yessireebob! There is just something magical about a home filled with MUSIC!

I am a military wife of 4 VERY active children. It is a relief to read your blogs, they litterally discribe my life to a "t". However, you seem to find the humour in it, when I just feel like getting in the car and driving away for the week. Just kidding, kinda. Thanks for helping me cope with my traveling circus, even if it is just for one more day! :o)

They don't call it Spring BREAK for nthing. What they mean the parent's mental state, not the children's schooling.

Another question for your FAQ list, or SSO, or SOS, or whatever- Do you think that your children might be encourage to "misbehave" when you're taking a photographic record of their misadventures for your posting on the blog each time they create a disaster?

Thank yu, thank you, thank you! You have saved my sanity! I absolutely hate putting photos in my blog. I tend to be long winded and like to type out my whole post first and then add photos later. Now I will not have to do all that silly dragging from the top to the bottom.

Looks like your day matched ours! I have those same magnetic cabinet locks and the DD is trying her best to learn "where to click the magnet" to make them open up. I pray she doesn't figure it out until she is 22.

Look on the bright side Dawn, no trips to the er yesterday, so that is good!

Hi Dawn, We had the same snow storm here in Michigan on Friday. It was no where near 50 degrees here the day before though. I think the high here got to 36. I was wondering how your Easter Morning goes with hiding baskets? Let us know what goes on with that scene. Kristine in Michigan.

Dawn I'm getting worried for you. You need a respite or your going to melt. There should be some place you moms can call and a nanny volunteers to come over and give you a break in the day. An afternoon, an hour, something..if I lived closer..as I am doing great with my cancer at this time. I'd come over and help..

My life as well. Grandpa hung a swing (singular) from the tree in the backyard. Seemed like a good idea and a wonderful way to enjoy our beautiful Arizona weather. Yea, five kids + one swing = more fights and injuries than one mom can respond to in the kind loving way I wake each morning intending to do. I asked my dad why there weren't five swings... then I remembered, besides not having five trees, there would be one that was better, they would find a way to get into each other's swing zones, and they wouldn't all be able to launch themselves from the trampoline... yea, the list goes on.

I know that having siblings is helping to give them the lessons they will need to be better adults, but sometimes I wish these were lessons they would learn as adults when I didn't have to be the one to mediate.

So while my Saturday morning began at 5:00 a.m. telling my 10 year old and his friend they had to sleep not play video games, and then at 6:30 as my 6 year old begged me to get out of bed while stating that I ALWAYS stay in bed on Saturday mornings (until 7:00). THIS morning I was dragging everyone of them out of SOUND sleep at 7:30 so we could leave for church. Forget the chicken and the egg question, I want to know how kids innately know how to get up early on Saturdays, while finding the ability to sleep so soundly every other morning.

I feel for you, Dawn. My solution to the kids in the cabinets is simply filling the cabinets to the point that no child can fit in there. Fortunately, even my mom hasn't figured out how to open the magnet locks yet... knock on wood!

You know it's a bad snowstorm when the garbage company calls to say they're moving garbage day to Monday. Of course, we were in St Louis this weekend -- 70 on Friday when I was comatose at the in-laws, and cold and yuck the rest of the weekend, including snow this morning. I was paranoid I was going to have 10" to shovel when we got home but the sun melted it -- even if the temps are still freezing!

I'm a mom of 7 and I really enjoy your blog. I can relate to everything you've written, from kids in the cabinets to writing on walls and everything in between. Just keep seeing the humor in the situation--that's what keeps us moms going!

Re: Lexi hiding in the pantry. Where else was she going to go and enjoy all those potato chips for herself? Makes perfect sense to me. AND, she was saving you from all the others coming and saying, "Lexi got.....why can't I have.....?" No, I don't have kids, but I was one of 4 (third from the top), so I know how these things work. Meta (I can't remember my Google id and password)

Holy woman. I thought my spring break was bad with 3 sick kids, one who decided not to do the past 6 months of school or homework and ended up with 3 F's so spent most of his vacation locked in his room catching up, only to let him out one night to the neighbours for a movie night to receive a 'lovely' email from the neighborhood complaining of way too much swearing, farting and fighting going on. You win, hands down. I will stop whining like a 2 year old now :)

Ah, yes... Spring Break. Seemed like such a wonderful idea when I was a kid, and now I'd just like to meet the demon who came up with the idea.

My day has been chaotic since the sun came up, waking up to my 9 and 8 year old screaming and fighting with each other. And of course the almost 4 year old is ticked because they've been here all day in his way.

It's been lovely.I'm convinced that my mind will be lost by 9:03 pm tomorrow night.

This morning was the last chance I have to sleep late for months. The last day of spring break. My 18 mo old woke up at 4:30, saying good bye to daddy as he left for work. My 16 yr old was awake early, so she took him to play so I could go back to sleep. I finally got back to sleep just before my 8 yr old came down to tell me his stomach hurt and he just threw up on his bed. I said I'll clean it up when I get up. When I dragged myself out of bed around 8, I found out he had not made his bed with the clean sheets and mattress pad I gave him last week. So I scrapped barf of the mattress and cleaned it with a damp sponge as best as I could. I'll be renting a steam cleaner later in the week to clean it better.